RTW – Set in the Roman Republican period. Game is centered on the Rise of Rome, and generally the Roman units are extremely OP. Cavalry are also OP, being able to charge nonstop in a period where half of them were supposed to suck. At least, the Greek and Roman ones are OP compared to real life. Eastern cavalry are fine. While it has aged pretty poorly, many fans tout it as great due to nostalgia and some very nice historically accurate mods made for it.

BI – Barbarian Invasion: Fall of the Roman Empire period. Difficulty has been amped compared to the original game, and the barbarians aren’t underpowered. Cavalry also gets better on all sides, and night battles are featured.

Alexander - A short, rather difficult and limited campaign focusing on Alexander the Great's conquest. Features Brian Blessed as a voice actor. First TW game that centers around a historical figure, in this case Alexander the Great. (derp)

MTW 2 – Medieval period. Cavalry are extremely powerful with the new emphasis on unit mass and the rise of the knight. Crusades, Mongols, Jihads, the New World, and guns are all available in a single playthrough. Battles are generally slower compared to RTW’s, making it a suitable Babby’s first TW.

Kingdoms – The expack to MTW 2, adds in 4 new mini-campaigns revolving around the New World, Teutonic Knights, Crusades, and the British Isles. Touted as the best TW game ever by fans mainly because of sheer amount of mindblowing mods available for Kingdoms.

Empire – The first “gun battle” TW game, set during 1700s. Touted as the worst TW game ever mainly due to the introduction of the new warscape game engine and general bugginess of everything. Still, mods fix some of the problems and the scope of the game is unparalleled as it pretty much involves most of the world aside from Australia and Asia. Introduces real-time naval battles in the game. Unit replenishment is also simplified to a button click instead of having to send units back to territories for retraining. Most units carry a gun, and cavalry aren’t the killing machines they once were.

Napoleon – Gameplay is much more polished (faster unit responses) than Empire’s, though the concepts are largely the same. Unit replenishment is different, as it occurs slowly and automatically in friendly territories so players cannot just hide their armies for 2 turns and emerge fully healed.

Empire or Napoleon? - You play Empire for the wide range of the campaign map, from America to India. It focuses more on a longer time period as well, so the technology advancements are more significant. Napoleon has the better combat, its more polished and more immersive.

Shogun 2 - Covers the Sengoku Jidai, basically the “M2-era” of Japan. Cavalry are quite weak as everyone carries an anti-cavalry weapon. Battles are generally extremely fast as many units are focused on offense and have very weak defenses. Introduces a rock-paper-scissor concept for units in general, though a competent "git gudder" can circumvent the system through sound usage of tactics.

RoTS – Rise of the Samurai covers the Genpei war, the first real war in Japan. Units fight in loose formation, there’s no real army, just a lot of warbands. Harder than the other games due to how easy it is to kill levy and the AI is more prone to backstabbing the player.

FoTS – Fall of the Samurai covers the Boshin War, the modernization war of Japan. Contrary to popular belief, the Shogunate is NOT a backwards, anti-tech faction. They are pro-tech (the Imperialists are also pro-tech, but anti-foreigners) and backed by the French. Gameplay is like a lovechild between NTW and S2, with katana units fighting alongside extremely modern units armed with breech-loading rifles. Naval units can bomb cities to damage buildings and kill garrisons as well as support units in the field. It’s what ETW and NTW should have been. The best gun battle TW game in terms of polish and features.

Rome 2 – The long-awaited sequel to Rome 1 Total War. Unfortunately, the game was designed for high metacritic scores and therefore can be extremely lacking in terms of gameplay. Only time will tell if patching can make the game the sequel that Rome 1 deserves, or just an extremely casualized version of total war. Given the amount of attention it has received on sites such as 9fag and leddit, it would appear this “casualization” has drawn in a lot of new blood at the cost of the older fanbase.

While reading the pastebin, it has been highly suggested to listen to Total War’s OST.

1. Deployment – This is where you set up a formation that you’ll be pretty much using for the rest of the game. Now is a good time to take a good note of the terrain. Can you spring an ambush from the woods? Will the enemy have hills that it can camp on? Are there river crossings besides that bridge that need to be defended?

2. Skirmish – If both armies have plenty of ranged units, this is the time when the melee units are advancing to meet each other and the ranged units are shooting at each other. At this time the cavalry may be fighting each other for flanking dominance or just generally screening the ranged units. You may also send cavalry/fast infantry into flanking positions at this point.

3. Clash – Your infantry have met, your cavalry might still be fighting against theirs, and now it’s time to figure out how you’re going to win. Your infantry may be buying time if they’re inferior, or they may be doing the winning. If you had the advantage in the skirmish phase, position your ranged units at the flanks so they can shoot into the enemy’s sides. If your cavalry are available and they’re not the shitty kind, hammer the enemy’s rear with them.

4. Rout – Your infantry have won the day and the enemy are running. This is where you kill the fuck out of the enemy troops that are routing. Cavalry are suitable for this task because of their speed. Routing troops die very easily so it’s best to target elites just so they don’t live to fight you another day. If it’s your troops that are routing, withdraw everyone who is remaining so they don’t suffer further casualties.

SOME HOTKEYS THAT MAY BE HELPFUL

>General Hotkeys

Left click to select, right click to give order.

ctrl+click selects more than one unit. ctrl+a selects entire army.

Shift+right click allows you to give multiple orders. Eg run here, then run there, then charge this. Just hold shift down and click "here" then "there" and then the enemy. If you've done it right you'll get a big red arrow pointing to where they're going.

Hold space to show where units are marching to and what formation they'll be in when they arrive. (Warscape engine games automatically does this without needing to Hold Space)

Enter deselects everything.

G groups multiple units.

Right click+drag allows you to choose how wide the unit will be and what direction it faces when it arrives at that point.

>when done to a grouped formation they will stay in formation and you can only choose direction. Ungrouped formations will form a line and you decide how long it is.

>CTRL M Select all missle

>CTRL C select all cavalry

>CTRL I select all melee Infantry

>CTRL B select all artillery

>CTRL A select all all units

>CTRL D disbands all units selected on the campaign map

>Pre-Warscape

alt+right click to melee if the unit is a ranged one.

eg Hastati will throw a javeline before charging. Alt+click and they will just charge.

F to enable/disable special abilities like fire arrows.

>Warscape

Pressing F turns on melee mode.

Special abilities have their own hotkeys but generally you can see several icons of them on the UI.

>GENERAL BATTLE TACTICS

Cavalry do poorly in forests, and units receive less damage from ranged attacks when in forests.

Units can usually hide in a forest, and cannot be targeted (but the cheating AI knows they’re there!).

When outnumbering an enemy, hit them from the sides and rear whenever possible.

HAMMER AND ANVIL – Infantry pins everyone else down and your cavalry/ranged units smash their asses. Works most of the time assuming you have cavalry or some sort of hard hitting infantry.

Pre-Warscape Campaign Tips

- You can exchange SOME retinues and ancillaries between characters. Simply drag and drop.

>Gunpowder Game Tips

It’s pretty unnerving for people used to melee battles when the gun games pretty much involve shooting only.

Watch for inclines in the terrain. Zoom in periodically to see if a slight mound of earth is blocking line of sight (and bullets!).

Hammer and Anvil does exist, but there’s a new factor: Artillery. Howitzers are short ranged but can fire over lines of men, so you can position them safely behind the troops. Cannons cannot, and so you must place them within your lines or on raised terrain somewhere.

Cavalry should only attack from the side or rear, and expect heavy casualties for them if you make even the slightest mistake.

It’s best to let the men pick their own targets, especially in Empire where the units will not fire until every man in the unit is in formation. Just let them stand still and let the enemy come to them, where they will usually get the first shots off.

>I'm posting a campaign and would like a map with which to record my progres.

If you don't care about loading screen quotes and want to fix the remaining 29% of CTDs, here's the no-quotes fix. Apparently the more loading screen quotes there are the more often after-battle CTDs will occur.

Summary – This submod for EB adds in a few Augustan Reform units from Novus Ordo Mundi, which probably will never be released. It also adds in a new reform called the Constantinian Reforms, which is meant to represent the armies and units of the Late Roman Empire during the Barbarian Invasion/Migration Era timeframe.

Features

1. Easier reforms overall – The requirements for the Marian and Augustan Reforms can be daunting to the non-autistic. I lessened the absolute province requirement for Marian from 90 to 45. Augustan can be obtained at 75. Constantinian can be obtained at 100. That way you still have around ~30 or so provinces that you can send the units to ransack.

2. Augustan Reform Units

3. Constantinian Reforms

The Constantinian Reforms were meant to represent the reforms of Diocletian, Constantine, and Gallenius (sp?) implemented in order to better facilitate the military workings of an extremely large empire. Instead of having whole legions running around, the army was divided up into a field army and frontier garrison. Frontier garrison troops were typically second-rate soldiers who were also the very farmers and townspeople of the regions they protected. They can hold a line and in some cases perform successful attacks but their main use is for keeping order and siege defenses. Field army units are your conquerors and offensive elements. The following is a list of units and their uses:

Instructions - Follow the installation of EB in the pastebin. You must install Jirisys Megamod and use EB with Alex.exe!

This submod is not game save compatible if you’ve recruited the RS 2 legion units because I removed many of them to make space for the Constantinian units due to a hardcoded limit. There are some left but I don’t remember which ones I’ve removed.

Link: http://www.mediafire.com/?8tqa08jcjgp8z8g

>Roma Surrectum – Lots of stacks, lots of carnage.

SPQR - Focused entirely on the Roman war machine, it provides one of the best battle AIs in a mod. Expect to fight 10 stacks a turn later on. VERY Slow battles, fast campaign.

Hammer and Anvil are pretty much how you’ll win your battles in M2. Cavalry charges are extremely powerful even by shit tier cavalry as long as you line them up with their victims. Spearmen are a counter but even they will take heavy casualties.

>I cannot into Late Medieval Pikes and Gunpowder, why?

>Pikes

Pikemen are a varying bunch. Vanilla M2 pikes are bugged in that they pull their sword out too soon. Kingdoms pikemen are fixed to some extent but still bug out. The only way to fix M2 pikemen is to use the retrofit mod that adds kingdoms features to the M2 main campaign.

Now, to pikemen. Pikemen begin in spearwall mode and guard mode. Spearwall mode means the pikemen will use pikes. Otherwise they'll use swords.

In Guard Mode, pikemen will adopt a bracing formation when they're stationary. You'll see the front row kneel down and etc. This is only effective against cavalry charges (similar effect to deploying stakes) as the pikemen won't automatically attack units that are in contact with the pikes. With guard mode off, you'll notice they won't brace, but instead the front row will merely present pikes forward. This means the men are ready to do push of pike against anyone who tries to attack them head on. Still, pikemen are buggy and might just switch to swords.

>Musketeers, Arquebusiers, and Handgunners

M2 gunpowder units reload extremely slowly. The problem is compounded even further by that stupid fire by rank where units take their time to switch rows. They can't arc shots either, so what's a good way to use them?

I use them like I use crossbows. I place them in the front of my formation. They let off the first volley and quickly run past my melee units (usually a pike wall with men-at-arms placed between the pikemen) Assuming there's no pesky cavalry running around, I run my gunners to the flanks and fire into the crowd enemy units trying to push my line. If I don't have cavalry dominance, I sometimes leave gaps in my melee line. These are "Firing holes" for which my musketeers have a clear shot at enemy units.

It's essentially like a Roman maniple system.

>How would I unlock factions for M2's Grand Campaign? I don't want to beat it once as a faction I dislike.

Submods are highly recommended, and the choice boils down to DAC and MOS.

Here's a summary:

DaC has more factions, or rather the factions are split up a bit. also turn times are faster

Also has a story-driven campaign for khazad-dum reclaimers.

MOS has lots of scripts, some of which are shit and many of which can be turned off

>Broken Crescent – An excellent mod focusing on the Middle East

>Deus Lo Vult: Focused much more on roleplay, this one is more harder than SS, it's more focused in RP than the previous, if you love roleplaying this one is a must have

>Chivalry II: Sicilian Vespers: this mod is divided in several campaigns:

-Dark Age Era; Play as one of europe's faction before the first millennium, you will find a pagan northern Europe, the Magyar tribes in the east , Saxon kingdom in the British isles and the children of Charlemagne in Western and Central Europe

-Early Era; Basically the regular grand campaign with more factions, new factions not represented in the previous mods are Serbia, Bulgaria and Armenia(though it's represented in DLV)

-High Era; you will play with a faction after the 4th crusade, being the most interesting factions IMO the Latin Empire(crusade state founded after the capture of Constantinople, the byzantine empire and the quest to recapture the Golden Horn.

-Late Era; It gathers around the Sicilian Vespers,a rebellion that occured in sicily in the 14th century, Sicily is a good choice as faction to play, or Provence/Aragon and try to control Southern Italy

-Renaissance Era; As the name says, it takes place in the renaissance, Europe Faces the Ottoman Menace and the Rise of the Iberian Monarchies(Castille/Aragon), The hundred years war is no more, and great power in the east, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth has risen.

Interesting Scenarios would be the attempt to make the Holy roman empire weaker in Italy as the French, the Unification of the two Hispanic kingdoms(Castille-Aragon) and the conquest of it's historical possessions, try to survive and restore the byzantine empire or destroy it once for all, or even the Latin empire playing as Achaea.

>Stainless Steel, a complete overhaul that adds various mechanics to the game such as the Byg Grim's reality mod, useful for some roleplay, and recruitment based on eras. Also features a complete retexture of the factions and a new and better campaign map. Also known as Heavy Cavalry: Total War due to its buffing of cavalry to the point where they can defeat spearmen. Spearmen are still their counter though, they’re a lot better at defeating cavalry than most other infantry types except those with armor-piercing weapons.

>Eras Total Conquest: Unique mod, probably the only one on which you have the entire world map, it's also divide in campaigns you have to choose in the launcher

It features an AOR system that allows you to recruit other factions' units when you conquer their provinces, but the letdown is that there's almost no core units, so you can only recruit the native units (f.e in the world campaign if you play as spain you can't recruit musketeers in south america, only native troops), but apart some few inconveniences, it's a pretty solid mod. Has probably the most variety of factions, from Ireland to the Japanese shogunate and from Muscovy to the Khmer Empire, a lot of more which i'll let you discover by your own

-from 970 to 1500 is basically M2TW vanilla campaign map, new factions are Croatia, Sweden, Bosnia, and a whole bunch of swap factions

-India, europe and africa campaings, you will have the opportunity to play as either Despotate of Epirus or Empire in Nicaea in the first one, never seen this and one of the features that pleases me the most, also the Delhi dynasty and the african nation are interesting choices

-Europe, Asia and Africa, Play as the mongols in the 13th century and try to conquer the world or fight them as the Song or Jin dynasty, the other campaign is about the sucessor states of the Mongol Empire, that begins in the 1320s

-Whole world campaign: Begins in 1550. the spain have a shitload of colonies, same as portugal, feats the duchy of prussia and the austrian habsburgs, in the east there's the Ming, the Mughal Empire and Japan.

>Bellum Crucis: Another favorite, Bellum Crucis has some extraordinary game tweaks, and it probably hosts the best representation of a feudal europe amongst all the other mods. The most notable feature is the council of nobles(you must gain and keep their support, if you don't you might expect unrest and a possibility of a civil war), the ability to change religion if you are excommunicated, getting technology to unlock certain buildings or even spread unrest and plagues using agents. It has a unique unit roster and a solid AI. It also has an area of recruitment system like EB’s. In fact, every time you end a turn there will be historical events and other information that is given to the player to read regarding the actual history of that year, so it’s actually the EB treatment given to the Medieval period.

A maritime trade system is also present, you recruit a ship from the capital and with luck it will gain the "empty hold" trait(meaning it's a merchant fleet and to say it has no cargo) and then you send it to a coastal region far from your capital, and each turn your ship spends there there's a possibility of gaining a trading in spaice/ivory/gold, etc. trait, then you send it back to you capital to receive 2000 florins

Technology is also presented at some degree, mostly it improves the bonuses buildings you build give you, and you are also able to steal them from your rivals using a spy/assassin(can't remember

Battles are meant for you to be played; this meaning that if you autoresolve you'll lose, you are forced to play all battles.

You can claim the throne of a country if its leader died and you have a marriage with that faction.

>Hyrule Total War: What if Link never existed? Essentially one very big piece of fanfiction that had a lot of work devoted to it. The modder is now working for Sony, so don’t expect many updates for the mod.

Download Core Files, Full Releases, and Patches. Extract them all into the same folder.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?549472-Releases

>Sigh of an Empire

A Chinese mod that starts with the 2nd Opium Wars and ends with the Boxer Rebellion.

NOTE: You must change your computer's System Locale to "Chinese (PRC)" or else the game will crash when trying to start a new campaign. Go figure.

>Man Jiang Hong (River of Blood)

This is another untranslated Chinese mod that involves Eurasia, though the map is strangely cut off at some parts. Audio has been revamped, everyone speaks Chinese. Everyone. The year starts off at 1143.

There is no AoR, but every region seems to have its own unique mercenary unit.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/kmn915525j5c7e6/mjh.rar

>The Road (Road to LuoYang)

This is another untranslated Chinese mod with a very similar concept to River of Blood, except the map is much bigger but the mod is quite messy and unpolished. It is a beta, but the developer claims that he will follow in EB's footsteps and implement a full AoR system.

https://www.mediafire.com/?c2s4uth9t6dp949

>Han Zhi Shang (Death of the Han)

http://www.mediafire.com/download/9kvyecf1h8h5uhb/hanzhishang.rar

This is a somewhat untranslated Chinese mod based on the 3 Kingdoms setting. It is heavily scripted (there is an unscripted option) that sticks to what the historical characters did in history and walks you through the books.

>ShaoDing

Many of you may have heard of All Under Heaven (AUH), a mod for M2 set in East Asia. It has been beset by inactivity to the point of mod being listed as dead. However, most of the team is now collaborating with Chinese modders and the lovechild of the two is Shaoding, which is basically AUH except in Chinese and maybe slightly less autistic with the political scripting.

Basically the map spans from Tibet to Japan, and is M2 in the Far East.

https://www.mediafire.com/?3fz3196c5hsk53d

For people who don't have Kingdoms:

>The Long Road

Clouds under Heaven, puts Sweden, georgia, wallachia and more in the game, a superb mod if you are used to vanilla but tired of it.

>1648

a mod about the thirty years' war. I advise to play as Sweden or the Utrecht Union(Netherlands) as first, because the mod isn't easy. Its unit roster is great and even features a marching drumming cadence. A new feature is probably small towns around the map, which have the same function as stone forts but have the city's model to add immersion to the game.

Empire is the black sheep of the Total War family but, in my opinion is also the most complex of the lot.

Don't listen to the fools saying that Empire is just moving your men onto a line and keeping them there. These people are not true understanders of strategy. Moving into a line is of course what you always do, in all of the Total Wars.

But in Empire you have so much more. You have Grenadiers. You have Cavalry. You have artillery. You have GreenJackets and Chasseurs.

Lets start with the economy. In Empire you have trade theaters. There are 4 in total. The Coast of Brazil, where you get sugar, the West Coast of Africa and the East Coast of Africa, where you get Ivory. Then you have the Indian Isles where you get spices.

These nodes are very important. It's where you'll get most of your money from in the beginning. Get three trade partners and rake in the cash, build up your economy and don't forget to protect those nodes. Pirates and Enemy nations (these, only some times) will attempt to take those ships, so keep a fleet close to your Galleons or Trade Ships.

Naval combat in Empire is hard to understand at first, but like 18th century warfare, easy to get into after that first contact. Remember to have the wind blowing from your back so you have more movement, don't fire salvos unless you are really close to the enemy ship and choose your shot accordingly.

This means that if you're behind the enemy ship you should use chainshot or regular round shot to cause a morale drop. Don't use chainshot from the sides, as it will be less effective than from the back.

Grape shot should only be usefd when you're close to the enemy and want to demoralize them before boarding.

Your Admiral should be kept safe at all times. Losing him will cause severe damage to your units morale and likewise to the enemy if you manage to kill him.

Also be ready to have your ships take a beating. Tis hard to see your sailors take damage, but that is to be expected.

Let's move into land combat. Your standard army will have linemen, brave men who are expected to get shot at, blasted and bayoneted and hold the goddamn line. These guys will stay with you for a long time in any given campaign and you should take care to respect them. They can take cavalary charges and keep on fighting and later, when they have bayonets and know how to form a square, can even kill whole units of them.

They are not expected to move into melee unless they really need to. They aren't very good melee fighter but they can get the job done against skirmishers or other linemen, but not against specialized units such as Janissaries or Cheroke warriors.

When you start the game, most won't even have bayonets and when they first arrive they make you lose the ability to fire their guns. After that though, they get ring bayonets and socket bayonets, meaning they now have a pike and a gun. Still, don't throw them against melee infantry unless it is absolutely necessary.

You also have artillery, the mistress of the field. These guns are your trump card and they can break an army when used properly. You have several ways of using them in battle. You can put them in your line, as shown on the screenshot, where they will prove to be good against infantry and cavalry by the use of grape shot, which absolutely destroyes everything, as it acts like an oversized shotgun.

Be aware that the enemy might be able to rush it with cavalry or tough units, making a big hole in your line and turning your cannons into useless shotguns.

Personally, I prefer to deploy them behind my units. They're protected there and they can lob roundshot over your line into a confused enemy mass, continously damaging their morale and making them regret ever attacking you. The problem with this strategy is that you lose the opportunity to use grape shot and you can only fire at the enemy for so long, as after they reach your lines you can no longer fire because you would hit your units.

Disregard that last part if your name is Edward Longshanks.

Now, with your linemen holding the line and your artillery positioned so you can attack the enemy we come into specialized units, like the Grenadiers.

The Grenadiers are big strong men who don't need no general. They have great morale, they can use their guns and they have the brawn to stand up and fight the enemy in melee. In vanilla Empire they even have grenades!

You should put them either at your flanks to hold off the enemy or in the middle to take the brunt of the enemy attack.

However, they have less men than a standard unit of Linemen, so don't waste them in a prolonged fight against a unit of them. Use them to charge the enemy line and create confusion in the enemies ranks or to counter an enemy melee unit like shown on the screenshot here.

The we have skirmishers. These can be Fusiliers, Chasseurs, Caçadores, Tiradores, Greenjackets, etc.

They have more range than your linemen and should fight on loose formation, to screen the enemy lines shooting at the enemy line with impunity and raking in the kills. As battles goes on, they should move into the flanks and get the enemy while your line attacks.

They are weak against cavalry, so take care of them and keep them properly protected from them with your own cavalry or Grenadiers.

They have great accuracy and the time they take to reload varies from faction to faction, but I think that they usually take more time to reload than other units.

Just keep them out of melee or linemen, leep them focused on the flanks of the enemy or other skirmishers.

And finally, Cavalry. These are not the rape trains from Medieval 2, Rome or Shogun 2, but that doesn't mean they are weaklings or poor units. These are the troops responsible for breaking the enemy, taking care of skirmishers and enemy artillery.

Use them to protect your flanks from enemy cavalry if they can. This means, don't use a unit of Hussars to take care of a Regiment of Horse, as they'll get destroyed because they are light cavalry.

Use them to flank the enemy and destroy the enemy artillery or, in a prolonged battle, to take care of an unit of linemen if they have their sweet, tender asses showing.

Be wary of squares of infantry as these will completely destroy your anus. Also use them to run down the enemy when they start to run from the fight, as they can reform if you don't take care.

Never charge a unit, unless they are skirmishers and even then, from the front and never charge into your units. You'll take losses and a morale hit, making it a no-no.

Now for the Overworld map. You have three major theater where you can act. The Americas, Europe and India. Europe is the standard old continent, cities are developed and you have some things that you can build up, such as factories and in the Ottoman territory, cotton to sell and trade.

In America you have tobacco plantations and Gem mines, making it also a reach territory to conquer, build up and get money. However, you have Spain, Holland, France and a couple of other major factions to contend and fight for territory, making it bad for your diplomacy.

In India you have the Marathas and Mughals. You also have tea. Lots and lots of tea to get and trade. You won't step in any major nations toes if you play it right and can take a big chink of territory before the British or the Netherlands decide to fuck with you. By this time however, you should have a pretty strong economy and can hold against them, or at least pay them to go take a hike.

Now, each territory you take has a capital which has to be managed. Each territory has a couple of towns that can be developed and it falls to you to decide how to develop a province.

For example, if you take a region fromt he ottomans you should probably build a church in a town so you can get a priest. You then move that priest into another province so he can convert the populace to your religion, while the church converts the populace from the province where it was built.

After a region is completely converted and there is no more religious unrest, which you can check by clicking the capital of the province, you should tear down the church or move the priest. If you tear down the church the populace will get a bit sad, but fuck them. Build a unit of milicia and use the town to either build a factory or a school, as these are more useful for the future.

Speaking of schools, these are where you research new technologies. They also spawn gentlemen, who should be used to speed up research.

You do this by placing them in schools you own.

You have three branches to research. Military, Industrial and Civil. These are useful as they give you bonuses, allow you to recruit new troops, use new weapons, etc. What you research is your choice, but I encourage you to research bayonets first, as they give you a real edge in combat and make your linemen, as stated above, capable of melee fighting well enough to not immediatly die.

And finally, taking cities.

Picture this, Imperator. You have just taken the enemies Capital, Istanbul. You are of course, white and civilized. But the populace of Istanbul is not. They are unwashed, are pissed at you for taking the capital and to make matter worse, they are Muslim!

You'll have revolts when taking capitals. Be prepared for this. After three turns a rebellion will spawn and they can keep your army tied down for quite some time, so http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0AiN8vrn9Y [Embed]

Each time you quell a rebellion, the resistance to occupation will go down. Time also makes it go down each turn and having a priest (if they are from another religion) will also help you taking over the region. Meanwhile you'll just have deal with it and keep the region.

Lastly, I want to talk to you about Diplomacy.

The AI is retarded, so you'll have to plan accordingly. Always try not to be a dick. Don't break alliances when you can, don't ask for a peace treaty and immediatly break it the next turn, keep trading with the same factions and try to limit your assassinations.

If relations are going down, consider giving the faction a bit of cash, a technology or a gift. These will keep them happy with you and make them not to attack you.

If they go to war and you are able to, join the war against the enemy faction, lest you get the unreliable Ally trait.

Consider making buffer states, giving regions to a no name faction so that you have a buffer against other factions, so that if shit hits the fan, you at least don't get immediatly swarmed by enemy stacks.

Use your navy! You can completely block the mediterrainean by putting a navy near spain. Don't think that the sea isn't important, because it fucking is. Attack trade lanes and get a bit of cash.

Also, the AI knows. If they see you taking all of the Ottoman Empire and removing the Kebab from the world, don't be surprised when Persia declares war on you. If you were Persia and suddenly Russia destroyed the Ottomans and were now eyeing your beautiful muslims, wouldn't you declare war to get them off there?

Be aware that you take a hit to relations each turn if your king, for example, is a Retard (Charles 2). If your religion and government is different , you'll also take a hit to relations. Sometimes there will also be a war of sucession. Nothing you can do about this, you just have to tough it out.

In short, don't be a dick and most nations won't declare war on you just because. We'll I guess I'm done.

>naval combat tips

I group my fleet such that similar quality ships are in a line together. I keep the group function on so I don't need to focus too much on the movement micro YET.

As my line approaches theirs, I tell my ships to turn so that they won't receive too much fire on the approach. When the enemy ships are engaged with mine, I tag using Alt+Right click ships that need to be focused on. That minimizes my targeting micro. Then I ungroup the ships that are engaged and begin fine tuning their micro.

I try my best to keep the wind on my side but that doesn't work to my favor too much. I rarely use chainshot either unless there's some really powerful ships that I want dead int he water.

Artillery and special ships (galleys, steamships) are independent actors in my fleet. They don't engage in heavy combat, but target specific ships for heavy damage.

>Good Mods for ETW?

>Unit mods from TWC

Self-explanatory, but most require a TWC account which many of you don’t like to make. Make one anyways.

>Darthmod.

Darth compiled (or some people would say, stole) many stat tweaks, unit packs, and his own vision of Empire into a single large mod that improves Empire’s AI, battles, and basically the overall game. Many would say he fixed the game and made it playable.

Here's the "fix" to the Empire version of Darth

Make sure you get DME 8.0 (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=562420) and then update it to 8.01 newest beta (http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=569761).

Now, replace your Data\Dme\Packs\Dme_CPUC.pack with the following one - https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22299599/DME_CPUC.pack

Now place these two in Empire\Data\

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22299599/DME_boot.pack

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22299599/DME_Custom.pack

Re-launch with the launcher.

There is only one Darthmod logo left, it's on the campaign screen, but the shitty bg-video and star wars music is gone (along with the bootscreen).

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=12217768#post12217768

I also recommend this: download and overwrite the BSM addon in Data\Empire.

Napoleon Darthmod makes the game as enjoyable as Empire (i.e. it doesn't feel like you're commanding toy soldiers who all fire at the same time and march in perfect squares and rectangles); makes morale more dynamic etc. etc.

However, it has Darth's boot logo, campaign menu sign and Darth Vader as an advisor.

Here's what you do to get rid of that:

1. Copy this to your Napoleon\Data and overwrite.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22299599/DMN_Boot.pack

2. Rename the extension of DMN_Logo_UI.pack.pak to .bak or simply delete the file.

>LME – Le Monte de Empire

The La montée de l'Empire mod is a historical focused mod that adds or changes aspects, functions and appearances of the game to get a better historical representation of the period. It also disables aspects and functions that are not part of the Napoleonic war period.

Found it. You have to do what the readme says and edit your savegame with esfeditor to allow bigger armies, but you can choose the number of units allowed in each, and since you can also manually change unit sizes, it makes for some fun.

>40 units per army instructions FOR Napoleon – More of a game tweak, requires some technical knowledge.

Those are horo, silk capes denoting status. Before the Sengoku Jida, they actually had a function in using air turbulence to catch arrows being shot at them from behind. By the time of the Sengoku Jidai, these capes are propped on wooden frames and therefore lose much of their arrow-catching ability.

>Why are castles so shit?

Japanese castles weren’t exactly defensive. They couldn’t make high walls such as that on the Asian mainland and in Europe as earthquakes were exceedingly common. They thus had to construct sloped walls that could resist earthquakes, but at the same time allowed for soldiers to climb up them (with ladders of course, climbing in-game is very difficult to do and was very tiring)

>Why didn’t Japanese soldiers use shields?

They did in the Heian period, but by the Sengoku Jidai weapons development had taken a turn for the 2-handed. Ashigaru went straight to pike and shot, using yari and bow (and later on, matchlocks) in combat. Samurai mainly used a shorter yari and bow in combat. They didn’t need shields. They did have huge as fuck pauldrons when they were horse archers (seen in RoTS).

>Shogun 2 Game Tips

Rock paper scissors system means yari beats cavalry beats sword in general. A good commander can negate the system.

Ex: Head to head, yari samurai will lose to katana samurai. However, many overlook the fact that yari samurai can also be a poorman's shock troop with their high charge bonus (raised even higher through rapid advance) and can support cavalry and catch missile troops.

Ashigaru are your bread and butter, don’t waste too much money on pure samurai armies to maximize cost effectiveness. Yari wall whenever in combat. Yari ashigaru outside of yari wall have the advantage on cavalry, but they cannot stun-lock and hold back infantry with their pikes if not in yari wall.

Agents are a lot more useful now than in past games. Use them in conjunction with armies if you can afford them.

A yari ashigaru, your basic pikeman, is not a Hellene. Unlike the Hellenes, he runs fast like a motherfucker in the direction you tell him too, and he routs even faster when the battle doesn't go his way.

ALWAYS put him in yari wall to hold the enemy at bay. That extends his lifespan by 10-15 more seconds, which is precious time in the lightning fast warfare of Shogun 2.

Standard hammer and anvil (spear + cavalry) doesn't work too well. Why? Because of the rock papers scissor system and the fact that Japanese cavalry was shit. Most casualties in the Sengoku Jidai were caused by archers. Use archers to flank from a distance or use yari samurai/katana/nodachi samurai as your flankers.

Now, what the fuck is cavalry for then?

Yari cavalry are your anti-cav and general-poppers. They can also charge archers but withdraw them ASAP. Katana cavalry can fight in sustained combat, but it's better off to use them like mounted katana samurai. Use the horse to move them where they are needed, then dismount to fight.

Cavalry can defeat a disorganized and wavering spear unit by charging at the right time, but if they start fighting back expect your cavalry to start dying at an alarming rate.

>I'm getting spread thin. What do?

It doesn't matter who you really play as so long as after you take 3-5 initial provinces you sit back, take a breather, and pump up your economy. You should have 1-2 production provinces to make your armies, preferably they have some other resource building like pastures for cavalry or a blacksmith for infantry. The other provinces should be economically focused, good farms, inns and marketplaces. Garrisons are overrated. Try to not fight a war on two fronts. Keep two main armies once you have a handfull of provinces under control, using Garrisons only to keep public order, build happiness buildings where needed to reduce your garrison need and get some more income. Defense should be handled by your second army, and eventually a tertiary or quaternary army.

Opinions are divided on these mods. Radious unit packs add a lot of units but some are weird like mounted katana ninjas. These two mods are guys who modded the game to fit their own taste and without any higher objective whatsoever. Darthmod for Shogun 2 isn’t as popular as Darthmod for Empire.

>TRoM3 (The Rights of Man: Road to Kyoto) -Total overhaul of the sengoku campaign, aim for historical realism, features :

-Katana samurai replaced by Yubusame Samurai, they got a bow with low ammo and are better in melee than Bow samurai

-Yari samurai is the new dedicated melee

-Ashigaru tech tree, you start with short yari ashigaru and bow ashigaru, as you advance in the tree they gain moral and you unlock new specialised units, top tier are pike & shot ( square formation of death ) and sharpshooters ( with light inf training ), better not research the highest tier before tax reform.

-Better combat and morale

-Better teppo

-Best AI of all mods

-Adds AOR household units wich are cheaper and retain the color of their clan

-Caps certain units

-New economy and ressource system

Overall it adds the most features and is really enjoyable. It's like vanilla++++

It's turned on by default for some units. Roman units have a tendency to keep in formation while fighting. All units will cheer instead of pursuing routing enemies.

With the implementation of Patch 6-7, Formation Attack can now be switched on/off for "civilized" units (Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans). Formation Attack is essentially guard mode in that units will hold formation when fighting. However, this does not affect pursuit behavior.

>My hoplites break out of shield phalanx when I tell them to attack!

Shield phalanx disables itself when the unit is told to attack. CA said it was a design decision where hoplites will break phalanx to charge (yeah right…) To utilize hoplites in shield phalanx on the offense, simply ctrl click behind the unit you want to attack.

>I can’t deal with this squalor and public order, what gives?!

Research techs that increase public order. You can't develop cities to their fullest extent anymore. You have to wait for slots to open up (speed it up via edicts or low taxes) and place priority of public order buildings over squalor-causing buildings It's historically accurate, bro. Also when a city can expand, expand it and immediately build something. Don’t wait or slums will appear in that slot and will require demolishing. Slums take away from your food stocks and generate unhappiness. They also allow you to recruit Mob or Pleb units, depending on your faction.

>Why are there 3 ways to assassinate people? It’s all the same!

Zeal, Authority, and Cunning are different stats that are not evenly distributed among agents upon recruitment. Different agents grow their stats differently, so be sure to send agents that can counter enemy agents' weak stats. Ex: Your spy has strong zeal. That dignitary has low zeal. Use the spy. That champ has strong zeal, but low cunning. Send an agent with high cunning to get rid of him. Don't use zeal vs. zeal in this case.

Also, these 3 stats unlock different skills as they are leveled, and skills for each agent and general. Zeal tends to unlock brute force abilities and survival rates for agents while boosting the combat prowess of your general's bodyguard, which is useful for infantry generals. Cunning unlocks troop support and leads your generals to become understanders of strategy. Authority unlocks passive abilities for agents and also unlocks troop buff abilities for generals; these usually take on a charismatic overtone.

Here are some skill trees and outside links to more info on the 3 stats:

http://guides.gamepressure.com/totalwarromeii/guide.asp?ID=22310

http://guides.gamepressure.com/totalwarromeii/guide.asp?ID=22311

>Why do my units blob and not attack cohesively?

There's a distinct audio difference between an actual cohesive attack or a chaotic block when you give the order.

An actual cohesive attack occurs when you click on the enemy banner once and you hear a "TINK", the attack audio. The blob happens when you click on an enemy soldier and you hear a "move order" sound effect as opposed to an attack sound effect.

The above was written during release version of the game.

Patches have remedied this to some extent, especially with the recent patch 9 which has virtually removed blobbing.

>Why is fatigue screwed up?!

Using abilities turns your men from Fresh to Exhausted after the ability duration wears off. Either save it for a final push to guarantee victory or don't use them at all. Having a general with Second Wind also helps.

>Javelins, Slings, or Bows?

Bows are anti-skirmishing. They have an average rate of fire and decent damage, but low armor penetration. They do kill other ranged units rather well, if only because the other units lack the rate of fire, range, armor, or some combination of the three.

Slingers have shit damage and rate of fire but average armour penetration. Over time, they can drop armored units better than the other ranged weapons. Problem is that it takes time, and run speeds are so quick time is very limited. So try to use slingers to flank.

Javelins hit the hardest but have the shortest range. Flaming javelins have been nerfed so they deal minimal damage but much morale damage.

After 150 hours in Rome 2 and mod testing, here's the list of mods I'm using if anyone is interested, I've tested many mods and removed some as they became increasingly unecessary with CA patching, also I very much dislike the current 2 overhauls because for every thing they do well, they fuck up 2 other things, so here it is. (most of the roster expansion mods are very balance friendly and in line with the new price changes).

I took out the Improved hoplite phalanx formation mod because today I noticed that it behaves like a pike formation against cavalry (instakill from the front), I think it's a bug derivated from the fact that the modder made it behave like a pike formation in terms of animations (the soldiers behind holding the spear up) and ability activation, cavalry would die even if they actually didn't touch the wall.

Divide Et Imperia (Used to be named Ars Gratia Artis) seeks to "fix" combat so it is much slower and less gamey. However,the side effect is that the Hellenic factions are buffed to the point of being OP. Actually it feels like RS2

>over 20 units in a stack?

Unlimited Units in Army

Here is how to get as many units as you want in a single army or navy on the Rome 2 campaign map.

Start a campaign, and save it.

Download http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?623719

Extract

Open the esf editor, then open your save game, it will be found in C:\Users\*yourname*\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Rome2\save_games.

WARNING: Some skills break down when a unit size is above a certain amount.

* Square formation from ETW and NTW breaks down at over 400 men

** Yari Wall from S2 breaks down at over 400 men.

ROME 2 UNIT MULTIPLIER EDITING

If you want to edit your unit number individually then you need to:

1) using PFM 3.0.2 open up data_rome2.pack file in your Data Folder.

2) click on the DB tab

3) scroll down and locate main_units and click on it. You will find a listing of all units and you can change all attributes not just unit numbers. Change your units to whatever you like.

4) now locate land_units and click on it. You need to edit here the number of mounts riding units get. Or else you will see 3 to 4 men on each horse!!. Edit the number of mounts to the same number as your number of men.

If you want to edit your unit number using a multiplier then you need to:

3) Change the second number to whatever you like. 2 will give 320 men per unit (2x160). 3 will give 480 men per unit (3x160) and so on. WARNING: this will give more ships per unit. So if this will bother you, then don't use the multiplier.

>Experience and Total War.

Each chevron = 1 level.

In general, killing routing enemies nets less experience than killing them normally. Killing elite units nets more experience than killing regulars. Because the exp requirement is the same regardless of unit size, leveling is a lot faster on Ultra despite it going by a kill per man ratio. Taking casualties also increases exp slowly.

Experience is retained after retraining. Occasionally it gets raised even more when merging understrength veterans.

Medieval 2 Total War

Attack +1 every 3 levels. So going from nothing to bronze gives +1 attack, going from bronze to silver nets another attack. Defense does not increase. Morale and attack speed increase every level. Missile units react faster when enemies come into range and fire faster and more accurately.

Experience is retained after retraining. Occasionally it gets raised even more when merging understrength veterans.

Total War has 2 different difficulties for the campaign and for battles. Increasing campaign difficulty gives the AI more money, less penalties that cause rebellion, and they can spawn units in the fog of war. Increasing battle difficulty gives enemy units crazy stat bonuses and on Very Hard even peasants can beat your knights.

>Total War Mechanics? How do I what?

When you pause the game and double click the unit card in the UI, a big info panel will pop up.

It’ll tell you things about stats, so let’s look at some basics.

>Attack – Generally tells you how good a unit is at killing things. In warscape engine games such as ETW this is called Melee Skill. Ranged units also have a separate value called Missile Attack.

*Attacks that are effective against armor just means that half of the victim’s armor is negated. This trait is useless against enemies with high defense skill/shield values and low armor values.

*If a unit has 2 melee weapons (pikemen with pike and sword), this number is that of the primary weapon (pike), not the sword. This does not apply in the warscape engine.

** In RTW, Attack is actually used to calculate the likelihood a strike will hit an enemy. Lethality (a hidden value) determines whether that blow is a killing blow.

>Defense – Generally speaking, this tells how good a unit is at surviving against ranged attacks and melee attacks. It is calculated against attack values. This is split into 3 separate values:

1. Defense Skill – This applies only to MELEE attacks from the FRONT. This is summarized as a unit’s ability to dodge and parry.

2. Shield – This applies MELEE and RANGED attacks from the FRONT and LEFT of a man. Left-handed people do not exist in total war. Summarized as a unit’s shield quality and ability to use a shield. **in M2 shield only applies from FRONT.

3. Armor – This applies to MELEE and RANGED attacks from ALL sides. Note: Armor also increases heat fatigue, so upgrading your units’ armor will make them tire out more easily in desert areas. Still worth it.

**Surprisingly enough, Shield and Armor values exist in ETW and NTW, though they are all summed up with defense skill as “Melee Defense”. DLC units tend to not die so easily because they have shield bonuses assigned to them. S2TW differentiates between defense skill and armor.

>Morale – This is a unit’s tendency to not run the fuck out of there when things are going poorly. Pre-warscape games do not display an exact numerical value (it’s in the game files) By meaning of going poorly, these things decrease morale:

- Being in combat

- Being attacked from flank or rear

- Getting shot (Friendly fire inflicts a bigger penalty, but AI in ETW and NTW do not suffer from friendly fire)

This is a value that I believe doesn’t exist in the warscape engine, where you sometimes see 100 men standing on one square inch of ground.

Unit mass applies when two units are fighting each other and one side starts to back up slowly because they’re lighter. It’s an important factor to consider when you’re deciding on what units would hold a solid line and what units are good in punching through a line. It might also factor in charging.

>Charge

The charge bonus is a number applied to attack when a unit is charging.

It is a ONE-TIME attack bonus that happens during a charge. If the charge is done poorly where only a few men make contact then essentially you just wasted a charge. This is why I prefer upgrading melee attack instead of charge in S2TW because I tend to have boneheaded moments.

**In warscape engine, units that are charged from the front while in “ready” status will use their defense skill to negate a charging enemy’s attack. I think it’s a direct subtraction, but don’t think too much on it. Therefore, yari ashigaru should NEVER counter-charge. They should stay still and brace for charges, so while they’ll still get fucked if No-dachi charge them, they would fare better standing and ready tan if they were also charging.

>Unit Spacing

This value shows how far apart each man stands from each other in a unit. Generally a loose spacing provides better protection from missiles because of a scatter effect, but this allows enemy cavalry to easily push through. Also, men that are spaced far apart are generally crappier at covering each other’s backs even in a general melee.

**Unit spacing actually plays an effect in the warscape engine. Even though the animations show 1 vs 1 duels, nearby men are actually calculated in the killing.

>What is Guard mode?

1. Units attack less often, meaning they kill less but have a higher chance to block. ALso tire out slower.

2. Units don't pursue fleeing enemies

3. Ranged units will keep shooting if caught in melee.

4. Units that see flanking enemies will turn to face them

5. Units will attempt to hold formation.

**M2 only, for Spear Wall users, guard mode off means they begin stabbing the next fucker in front of them instead of lying there with a pike angled up while enemies run between them and hack away.

In the warscape engine #1 and 4 do not apply anymore.

>Why do my units randomly charge?

1. Some units may charge without orders if they’re the undisciplined kind.

2. Did you group units and did group charge? If so, each unit will run forward and then autocharge the closest enemy.

>What does increasing difficulty do?

More penalties for the player, you’ll face more rebellions and your agents are more prone to failure. Diplomacy becomes impossible.

AI cheats, receiving much more gold than you ever will and their units receive stat gains to the point where their peasants fight as well as knights can in the highest difficulties. It does NOT get smarter.